GOTHENBURG, Sweden and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Google Cloud today announced that Volvo Cars has become the lead industry partner for Horizon, an open-source software development platform that helps car makers and automotive suppliers build, test, and deploy software for Android Automotive Operating System (AAOS) more efficiently.

Horizon brings together cloud-native development tools, virtual testing environments, and AI-assisted workflows into a unified platform. This helps car makers and automotive suppliers develop and deliver high-quality software at speed and make engineering more productive.

As Horizon’s lead industry partner, Volvo Cars is migrating its global AAOS software development environment to the Horizon platform. The platform will give its engineers access to faster development workflows, virtual testing environments and AI-assisted software development tools, freeing engineering teams to spend more time building in-car experiences.

“We’re building some of the most complex products in the world, which requires a development environment built to match,” said Gregor Zetsche, Head of Connected Experience at Volvo Cars. “As Horizon’s lead industry partner, we can directly solve our toughest engineering challenges and empower our teams to deliver new experiences faster than ever.”

Volvo Cars is the lead car maker working with Accenture and Google Cloud to bring the Horizon platform to the industry. Insights from this collaboration will help refine the platform and expand its generative AI capabilities for automotive companies and other industrial manufacturers.

Accelerating connected software development

Modern vehicles increasingly offer digital experiences, such as navigation, media, voice assistants, connected services and over-the-air software updates. As consumers expect these experiences to become richer and more sophisticated throughout a vehicle’s lifetime, manufacturers need faster and more efficient ways to build, test, and validate the software that enables improvements at scale.

For car makers and the wider automotive industry, the Horizon platform addresses these challenges by offering:

• An up to 9x faster software testing using virtual Cuttlefish-based Android Automotive environments, that enable large-scale testing with agentic AI.
• A reduction of infotainment feature development costs by up to 40%.
• Intelligent caching and optimized build pipelines significantly reduce software build times: Instead of waiting up to two hours, engineers can get feedback within minutes.
• Remote access to virtual and physical device farms allows developers worldwide to build and validate software from anywhere, while reducing infrastructure requirements. This improves hardware utilization and reduces the amount of costly physical test equipment required.
• Virtual workbenches are speeding up the onboarding of new developers. Instead of waiting weeks for physical specialized hardware and investing additional hours for the setup, engineers can instantiate their environments in seconds.

“Horizon enables a faster, more flexible and efficient way to deliver software-defined vehicle features. Its standardized, repeatable and scalable processes help deliver reliable, high-quality software products, while significantly reducing time to market,” said Juergen Reers, Global Automotive & Mobility Lead, Accenture. “Horizon will allow Volvo Cars’ engineers to focus on what matters most: creating differentiated vehicle experiences and continuously delivering new value to drivers through software at high speed.”

“Software now defines the automotive brand,” said Henry Bzeih, Global Director, Automotive Industry, Google Cloud. “Horizon on Google Cloud gives Volvo Cars the ability to move faster while releasing high-quality software and features on a cadence that matches the expectations of modern mobility. This is how next generation digital experiences reach drivers at agile speed.” 

Accenture and Google Cloud, with Volvo Cars as leading industry partner, are already working with other automotive and industrial organizations to extend the reach of Horizon into further companies and markets.

About Accenture
Accenture helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed for organizations across industries. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and lead in the safe, widespread adoption of AI, and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work in the world. We bring together the talent of our approximately 799,000 people with proprietary assets and platforms, deep process and industry expertise, and leading ecosystem relationships to deliver end-to-end solutions and measurable outcomes at scale. Through our Reinvention Services, we offer broad expertise across Cybersecurity, Digital Core, Finance, Industry and Enterprise, Song, Supply Chain and Engineering, and Talent, with advanced capabilities in AI and Data, Industry and Process, and Technology. We serve approximately 9,000 clients and generated approximately $70 billion in FY25 revenue. Visit us at accenture.com.

About Google Cloud
Google Cloud offers a powerful, optimized AI stack—including AI infrastructure, leading models like Gemini, data management capabilities, multicloud security solutions, developer tools and platform, as well as agents and applications—that enables organizations to transform their business for the Agentic Era. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.

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SOURCE Google Cloud